Prime will open new chapter of growth in India: Amazon CFO

Amazon's recently launched Prime will open a new chapter of the company's growth in India, says Brian Olsavsky, senior vice president and CFO at the e-commerce giant Amazon.

In the quarterly earnings call with investors, Olsavsky said that India and Amazon's cloud services AWS are two products that the company continues to increase investment on a sequential basis.

The $107 billion company also said that it will launch locally relevant video content apart from global original series in India. "Prime will be a whole new experience for Indian customers. Prime video is coming there, both Indian and global content," said Olsavsky.

The Prime membership service that offers free and faster delivery is coming to India at a time the company us upping the ante against the local rivals Flipkart and Snapdeal.

Amazon surpassed Flipkart as the most downloaded app during the first quarter of this year for the first time. The inaugural offer for Prime is for Rs 499 annually with a free 60-day trial period.

"There are other investments certainly that are increasing sequentially. I'd point to India and AWS," said Olsavsky adding that the company is also ramping up investments in operations and digital content. "That Originals content for TV and movies, that content can be used globally. We've talked a bit about our Prime launch in India, and alluded to the fact that we'll be having video soon in India, but local content and also Amazon Originals."

Seattle-based Amazon's founder Jeff Bezos had recently announced $3 billion of investments in India apart from the $2 blillion it has already pumped into the country. Olsavsky said that the company is encouraged to see the growth of the company in India.

"We are very encouraged by what we have seen so far in India, both with customers and also sellers. We are also starting to see exclusive online sales partnerships with Motorola, Samsung, Lenovo on select phones," said Olsavsky.

Amazon CFO said that the team in India has been inventive in India in surmounting obstacles that are different from what is seen in the US, the company's home market. "More importantly, we really like the opportunity in India. We really like our team there. We have a great team of Amazonian's who've been very inventive in India."

He added, "Every time there's an obstacle or something that's different from the U.S. or another major business they will invent around it, whether it's a shipping method or a payment method or whatever.

Amazon hoped that the Indian team will continue to be inventive to make Prime a success in India. "We are very excited about the Prime program. We think it will enter into a new chapter in India, and we feel India is going to be no different," said Olsavsky, adding, "We are looking forward to seeing what we can do on behalf of the Indian customer."